Ahhhh…networking. Most people dislike networking. In my experience, people who heavily dislike networking do so because they have a determined view that they “are not good at it.” What does this mean? In my experience, this attitude is accompanied by certain behaviors: avoidance, procrastination, stalling...all leading to “analysis paralysis.” In other words, if you really dislike networking, you tend to do nothing.
I have a friend who often asks me for job hunting advice so he can not only escape a job he has outgrown, but also leave an industry he is tiring of, and perhaps enter a new career altogether. Our conversations go something like this:
“How can I get out of my job quickly?” asks friend.
“Networking” I respond.
“I think I have finally figured it out: I want to leverage my skills and enter a new career altogether that I find exciting and rewarding – how do I go about doing that?” asks friend.
“Networking” I say.
Did I mention my friend dreads networking? Dreads the thought of reaching out to people to ask for help…dreads bothering people who haven’t heard from him in months or even years….dreads not knowing what to say and fearing he will owe them something in return for their trouble.
So, why do people dread networking, in particular the friend I am describing? Because it is unfamiliar territory, a behavior that is not practiced, and asking for help feels extremely awkward when you feel like that is all you are doing, since you don’t fully grasp that networking is a give and take situation.
Back to Gina. Interestingly, Gina IS a good in-person networker, no matter what she claims. Perhaps not as comfortable as she is with the online method she gravitates to so easily and naturally as a way of building her business, however, her day care business of 20 years demanded she interact with people on a daily basis who were either using her services, or interested in buying them. Gina had to speak with people face to face from the very inception of her business since without people entrusting their children to her care, she would have had no clients, no pipeline of clients, no referrals, and well, no 20 year business.
The fact that Gina has discovered a whole new world where she can meet hundreds, if not thousands, of people with a mere click of a button who might be potential clients or serve as resources to building her business is great. However, as her coach, I am still challenging her to mix the old with the new.
Hence, the latest “action item” assigned by me involved challenging Gina to reach out to 3 professionals within her field and schedule phone calls (these people are perfect strangers but she has identified them via the Internet). Instead of just “chatting” with them virtually, I wanted to “raise the bar” in terms of her networking behaviors and challenge her to have a voice to voice exchange to see what she might learn.
Gina has already completed one meeting, and what made the meeting so successful were the networking behaviors she employed. Gina successfully:
1. Identified individuals on the web who might share their learning experiences as professional writers and perhaps even have some work to pass along to her.
2. Acted as a resource for this individual, sharing her growing wealth of knowledge and expertise in the social media arena, helping this person become more familiar with Twitter in particular.
3. Gained vital information from someone in her field who has been making a living as a writer for years, thus gathering information that will help Gina make her own business more successful.
Networking, while it may never be wholly comfortable for someone like Gina (and it certainly might be something my friend forever avoids) is so critical to your career that if you don’t have a network you better get one, because you’re gonna need it.
In fact, networking can actually be fun, whether you enjoy the enormity of working your way around the world wide web or you feel more at ease establishing valuable, face-to-face relationships.
Check back for more tips on networking and if you want to learn more about the value of networking online and how it can help you meet your career goals, check out Gina’s latest article on Twitter: http://womeninbiz.sbresources.com/blog/blogpost.cfm?threadid=91&catid=12
And get to WORK! :)
